Resentment

Part 10

Jade POV

When I slowly came back to consciousness I had no way of telling how much time had passed. The room was still as bright as ever from the lights in the ceiling.

"Ahh my head." I groaned.

"You're finally awake." David's voice sounded far away.

Looking up and squinting I saw him still hanging in the same position as before I passed out. "How long was I out?" I asked.

"Who knows, can never tell in this place. Seemed like a long time though."

"why... why did they do that?" everything seemed to hurt.

"They examined you whilst you were unconscious, took samples, changed your clothes."

I looked down at myself; I was wearing light coloured baggy overalls, which looked like they'd been borrowed straight from the prison system. David had been dressed similarly since I arrived. "Oh."

"Don't worry I didn't look... much." He smirked. "What were you even wearing before anyway? It was unusually pink for you."

I decided it was better to ignore his first comment. I wasn't shy but neither did I want to be looked at without my consent. Instead I answered the question; "I was blending in. I had to sneak into someone's house when I was trying to find you."

"Oh."

"We need to find a way out of here." I glanced at around, knowing they were probably listening to every word we said. I lowered my voice below human hearing, hoping they wouldn't be able to pick it up. "Did you think of anything before I got here?"

He let out a humourless laugh but answered just as quietly, "Why do think I'm still here?"

If I could of I would have shrugged, as it was my arms were in too much agony to even try to move an inch. My skin still slowly bled where the silver continually burned it. The occasional drop of blood would run down onto my shoulders. "It was worth a try." I said.

"I have been trying to work out the layout of the building." He muttered almost indistinguishably. "I can hear some stuff below us, but a lot of it seems to be above."

I stretched my hearing as far as it could go. Sounds seemed unusually muted, making me think that there must be some sort of extra reinforcement within the walls of the room.

David was right, as far as I could tell there was only one more floor below the one that we were on. I dreaded to think of what was down there. There was mostly silence aside from the occasional movement of heeled shoes and the clink of a glass container. Some sort of machine hummed lowly. My first thought was of a lab.

The floor we were on also seemed fairly uninhabited. The sounds of several pairs of heavy boots patrolled the corridors. Above us sounded much busier. The sounds of computers and typing seemed to be everywhere. People everywhere were having hushed conversations, many of them about the new arrivals. I seemed to be the most popular topic for speculation, although Jamie also had his fair share. The snippets of information were all jumbled together.

"...They're saying she's really old..."

"...Dangerous..."

"...Killed hundreds..."

"...Going by Jade do you think that's its real name?" I smiled; at least they didn't know everything.

"...They're testing him..."

"...Might be infected..."

"...They say he actually... you know with her..."

"...Isn't that necrophilia?" From David's amused snort I assumed he heard that one. I frowned in annoyance.

Finally I found what I was looking for, Jamie. I'd recognise the sound of him anywhere. From the way I could hear his familiar footsteps pacing up and down, he appeared to be in a confined space. Every so often he would make a tiny sound of annoyance, no more than a sigh. Everything in me wished I could just reach out and touch him. But I knew it was impossible, he was two floors above me.

At least he was able to move around, even if it was in a tiny room. I had been imagining him in some sort of scenario similar to my own. But of course he was human; there were still some limits on what they would do to him.

David and I on the other hand, had no rights at all. That was one of the biggest problems, I realised. If vampires could be seen as equal to humans in society, they would have at least some protection from harm. Whilst we legally had no rights at all, humans could do whatever they desired with no legal or perceived ethical repercussions at all.